 When the republic was proclaimed, Criste stepped down and passed his legal powers to Inculeț.On , after a month of elections by different political and professional organizations of their delegates, Sfatul Țării opened as the first parliament of the autonomous Bessarabia, with the local legal representatives of the Russian Provisional Government signing off their duties to Sfatul Țării.A festive mass was held at the Chișinău Central Cathedral, with Bishop Anastasii, a Russian cleric, holding the mass in Romanian.